Golden Knights, Kraken 2024 Winter Classic Sweaters Revealed

UPDATE: The NHL officially unveiled both these uniforms about a week after this story was originally posted. I included an update showing the official photos and information from the release in the second half of this post

For the second time in two days, a 2024 NHL Winter Classic jersey has been revealed via an unannounced post from another sport’s official social media account.

Following yesterday’s Seattle Kraken reveal courtesy of the NBA’s Utah Jazz of all things, today we got to see the jersey that will be worn by the Vegas Golden Knights — along with another look at the Kraken sweater. This time, it’s all thanks to a livestream posted to the official social media account of All Elite Wrestling.

SHOP: Golden Knights, Kraken 2024 Winter Classic jerseys available now!

It’s either cross-promotional genius or a desperate (but ultimately successful) attempt at generating attention… it all depends on how you personally feel about the National Hockey League, in general. Regardless, this seems to be an intentional attempt from the NHL to generate interest from a supposed “leak” before the official unveiling, whenever that would be.

Skipping over the how, let’s focus on the what… and today, that’s the 2024 Vegas Golden Knights Winter Classic sweater.

It’s largely underwhelming, at least what we’ve seen so far. A fairly plain off-white sweater with single gold stripes on either sleeve and one around the waist, a gold shoulder yoke and collar with a massive dark grey “V” logo on the chest with gold frills. The logo on the chest matches what we saw on a leaked retail ballcap back in August.

While I didn’t understand the inspiration behind the design of either the logo or the sweater at first, later, an unconfirmed source close to the Golden Knights tried to shed some light on everything for us.

***West Point uniforms an inspiration to the Golden Knights Winter Classic logo?***

The overall idea is a fauxback to the 1910s to a hypothetical Las Vegas-based team to match what the Kraken are doing with the 1910s Metropolitans. There are no metallic elements here, just basic gold. The style is of the “Wild West,” the piping inside the “V” is inspired by the ceremonial uniforms worn at West Point, and (a yet-unseen element) seven stars inside the back collar point to seven Golden Knights seasons.

SHOP: Golden Knights, Kraken 2024 Winter Classic jerseys available now!

Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure this will be a case of “wait till we see the whole package,” which is the risk you take with these slow-drip uniform unveilings.

Last night’s Seattle Kraken leak was a clear reference to the uniforms worn by the 1910s Seattle Metropolitans, former Stanley Cup Champions, and a member of the old PCHA — one of several major league professional hockey leagues that floated around in the early years of the sport.

The 2024 Winter Classic will be held on January 1, 2024, at T-Mobile Park in Seattle between the host Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights.

UPDATE November 22, 2023:

The NHL *officially* unveiled both the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights 2024 Winter Classic uniforms today, confirming all those fake leaks earlier in the week. Also confirmed was our source’s explanation for the inspiration behind the Golden Knights uniform, which you can scroll up to read — thank you, source!

What did we learn today that we didn’t already know? Helmets, pants, socks, player name and number styles, and a few quotes from those involved.

The Golden Knights will pair their off-white sweaters with dark grey helmets and pants; socks will be barber-poled, much like the tops the Kraken are wearing.

Seattle will do a wonderful job matching their uniform properly — the navy blue jersey gets a navy blue helmet, navy blue pants, and navy blue socks. Now, that’s how you do a hockey uniform.

SHOP: Golden Knights, Kraken 2024 Winter Classic jerseys available now!

2024 Winter Classic logos will be worn as patches on the right shoulder of both teams, presumably to make room for, well, you know, on the front.

“The Vegas gold currently in that franchise is very blingy; it’s shiny, it’s metallic. It’s a textile that we worked with them for multiple years in order to create a performance fabric that had that true metallic quality,” Adidas design director Matty Merrill told NHL.com. “Well, that would not have existed in 1917, which was 100 years from when they were founded. What would that colour be? It’s going to be a muted gold. What would the striping be? It’s going to be a lot more simple.”

“Knowing Bill Foley and his background at West Point, and that name, Golden Knights, having a military reference, let’s keep going back to that well, but in a new way, and so, the braid, or it’s really chain stitch, on our crest is derived from the braid on the dress-grey uniforms that West Point cadets wear.”

Moving onto the Kraken, whose inspiration is far more obvious, we now see that there is a “1917” added to the inside back collar, a nod to Seattle’s status as the first non-Canadian city to win a Stanley Cup Championship, a cool 104 years before ever being home to an NHL franchise.

“Being able to drop that status that we’ve already won one Cup in this town, and we’re going to chase you, Vegas Golden Knights, and get our second soon enough,” Merrill told NHL.com. “That’s a cool thing to put in there.”